Feature: THE WRATH OF NATURE By Rene F. Antiga It is quite alarming that weather disturbances throughout the world have become more violent and destructive. The weather has become unpredictable. It doesn’t follow a natural pattern anymore. Scientists blamed it on climate change - a significant and lasting change in the distribution of weather patterns caused by various factors such as oceanic and biotic processes, variations in solar radiations, plate tectonic, volcanic eruptions and human-induced alterations of the natural world. The rate at which energy is received from the sun and the rate at which it is lost in space determine the equilibrium of temperature and climate of the earth. This energy is distributed around the globe by winds, ocean currents and other means that affect the climate of the different regions. These human-induced effects are currently causing global warming. Global warming is the rise in the average temperatures of the earth’s atmosphere and oceans. It is estimated that the earth’s surface temperature has increased by about 0.8 degrees C or 1.4 degrees F with about two-thirds of the increase occurring since 1980. This phenomenon is primarily caused by the ever-increasing concentration of greenhouse gases produced by human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and forest denudation. Thus, the proliferation of bunker-fed power plants and the unabated illegal logging contributed immensely to global warming. Unless the human inhabitants in this planet will come to realize the need to preserve the environment, nature will strike back with even greater fury and more devastating consequence. In a workshop on Disaster Risk Reduction Management (DRRM) conducted by the Partnership for Philippine Social Services Agency, Inc. (PHILSSA), in Banilad, Cebu City recently, it cited the country as one of the top three in terms of vulnerability to calamities. Following the Hyogo Framework of Action (HFA), an agreement signed by 168 governments in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan, the workshop tackles on disaster management in terms of mitigation, preparedness, rehabilitation and response. The Philippines lags behind in terms of disaster response. As a consequence, for one casualty of disaster in Japan, there is an equivalent of 17 casualties in the same disaster in the Philippines due to sluggish response time. At the height of typhoon “Ondoy,” I saw on TV a horrible scene I could never forget for the rest of my life. It was a footage of a family sitting on a floating debris that was carried away by swift flowing current of the Marikina River. People atop the bridge were frantically shouting and encouraging the family to hang on to their lives. A man quickly threw a rope down the river in a last-ditch effort to save them. But upon reaching the post of the bridge the floating debris scattered into pieces bringing down the family underwater. The people scampered to the other side of the bridge only to see the family gone with the swirling water. It was a pathetic situation – people wanted to save them but they couldn’t do anything under the circumstances. After the rescue operation, only the husband survived to tell the gruesome tale of his battle with nature. He lost his wife and children. In times of natural calamity, the government has the emergency power to commandeer government vehicles for search and rescue operations. As officer-in-charge of the provincial office of the Social Security System (SSS) in Albay, I was directed by the chief of the Provincial Disaster Coordinating Council to use our vehicle to help ferret out residents who refused to leave their homes located within the danger zones at the height of Mayon volcano eruption on February 2, 1993. Together with the military contingent of the operation, we proceeded to Masarawag, Guinobatan to rescue remaining residents and bring them to the evacuation centers in town. My purpose was also to look for a provincial mate who married a native in the place. While the earth trembled beneath our feet, we were so near the crater of the angry volcano that if it spewed lava anytime we could easily be buried alive. Our driver was so scared when he was almost hit by a burning rock as big as fist coming directly from the crater. I was seated on the bumper of our Toyota Land Cruiser watching the fiery volcano continued blowing its top when I heard a falling rock hit the roof of the jeep. The temperature of a molten rock is five times higher than a boiling water. The billows of smoke coming from the volcano darkened the whole place. Pungent odor of sulfur was overwhelming that we could hardly breathe. We rushed back inside the vehicle. We were only relieved when the military commander ordered us to move out even without bringing a single resident with us. But I was worried about my provincial mate and her family. I was hesitant to leave. After I heard the cocking of Armalite rifles to force civilians into the six-by-six trucks, I told our driver to follow. I only heaved a deep sigh of relief when I saw my provincial mate and her family safe in the elementary school which served as evacuation center. “Mahirap kalabanin ang kalikasan, Ray,” Pedro Anonuevo, 60, my fishing boat operator who spent the best years of his life fishing at sea often told me. His fishing buddies called him ‘Master’ and the name sticks. He reminded me of Santiago in Ernest Hemmingway’s ‘The Old Man and the Sea.’ While we were fishing with the use of hook, line and sinker in Albay Gulf, we were caught in the eye of the raging storm in the middle of the sea. I didn’t know that typhoon signal no. 2 was hoisted in the province at the time. I was drinking with some friends the night before so I missed to watch the weather report on TV. So, for three grueling hours we battled the wrath of nature and we didn’t expect to come out alive. “Let’s pray this bamboo pole wouldn’t break,” the Master held the steering pole with both hands at the center part. “If it does, we’re a goner.” The battle between the Master and sea had just begun. When the big waves rolled by he would slow down the engine and faced the wave head-on but slowly swerved the boat to the right when it was riding high on the crest of the wave. He gunned the engine up when it lulled. Then, three successive waves as big as mountain came rolling again. The only consolation when you are caught in the middle of the sea during a storm is that the waves are not open unlike in the shallow waters. While watching the battle between man and nature, I frantically bailed out the water from the hull to make sure it didn’t reach the engine level. If it did, goodbye to all that. The storm continued to battle the sea without letup. A flash of lightning split the sky followed but a roaring thunder. My whole body was numbed from cold but I continued bailing out water because our very lives depended on it. After the storm, the Master stood up and clenched his fists in the air and murmured some kind of prayer. I calmly opened my Tupperware and took a stick of cigarette, the only possession I had that I tried to protect from getting wet by all means. I smoked to calm down my nerves. It was then I realized how it felt to face the wrath of nature. ### 10 October 2013
Posted on: Thu, 10 Oct 2013 08:41:53 +0000
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